


Love Never Ends

by BettyHT



Category: Bonanza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 09:50:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5329700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BettyHT/pseuds/BettyHT
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a sequel to Revelations, Adam and Helen have returned to the Ponderosa and now have time to get to know each other and make plans for their future. There are quite a few adjustments to make, and there are those who are looking to make their lives miserable. They have to hope that the love they have is enough to withstand some major pressure in the first year of their marriage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Never Ends

Love Never Ends

Chapter 1

Slowly caressing the scars on Adam's back working in the salve that softened the skin until her hands moved to his neck and then into his hair, Helen leaned down and kissed her husband's shoulder as he relaxed under her gentle touch. They were in a hotel room in Virginia City celebrating their wedding for a second time. Ben Cartwright had given them a big party, and Adam had thought to make the most of it by taking two nights in town with his wife so that they could have some privacy. It had been wonderful having his family welcome Helen to the Ponderosa, but there was so much the two of them had to learn about each other yet that he wanted some time for the two of them. His father had gotten the church wedding and the big party he had so wanted to have, and in return, Adam got to take Helen to town for a short honeymoon. The weather was unreliable at best at this time of year so they were hoping it would last long enough for them to take the carriage for a ride around town to look at some property as well as around the Ponderosa. So far, it looked like the milder weather that had melted the earlier snows would hold. He had enjoyed being able to bed his wife without worrying if his family could hear anything. Then Helen had volunteered to massage some salve into his back. They were able to talk while she did that and the conversation had gotten around to the past year that had led to him meeting her in Helena and taking comfort in her arms there.

"So, you were thinking of that part of Revelations during this past year. It does seem that perhaps it was a prophecy. Now, if you had to think of a prophecy for us now, what would it be?'

"Sweetheart, that's the thing. I didn't think of it. The minister brought it up in church and the draft notices were about to go out. In the pit of my stomach I felt that somehow it was tied together. Then when Turnbull ordered the attack on that camp, it seemed that Death did ride that pale horse and kill with the sword. The other parts happened too unless I'm twisting the facts to suit my theory."

"No, pestilence certainly did kill Priscilla and her charges, and wild beasts did kill those poor children. You might be stretching the famine analogy a bit far but it does fit the way that the Lincolns explained it to you. At our wedding, your father had them read from Corinthians about marriage. Do you suppose that was our prophecy? If it was, was it meant more for me or for you?"

"He knows me very well so I have to assume it was meant for me especially the part about "it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable". I'm fairly certain that was meant as a not too subtle message to me."

"Adam, I haven't known you long but you don't seem to be arrogant and rude although you do seem irritable at times but you have controlled it well and have been patient with me."

"I'm not always patient. I want people to be decisive. I did tell you that I can be difficult. My father knows that, and he was reminding me to be patient and kind because he knows that I can be that too. I do love you very much." Rolling over on his back then, Adam pulled Helen to him. "I never want you to regret marrying me."

"Adam, I remember another part of that verse. "Love never ends." I can never regret marrying you because I love you and I know that you love me. I'm very happy being married to you."

"You know I married you because I love you. It's not because you're carrying my child. That was the fortunate occurrence that made it possible though."

"I know that. I needed something like that to make me reconsider my choices. If it hadn't happened, I think I would not have been happy. I made a big mistake telling you I could never leave Helena. I didn't know how big a mistake that was until you left."

"I want you to be happy here too. We can spend some time now looking over the Ponderosa, and then spend time in Virginia City and then in Carson City so that you can get to know the area. It will help you to decide what you want to do." Adam saw a slight frown then on Helen. "What's wrong?"

"Can we snuggle for a time. I need some time to think, and in your arms is the safest place I can be to do that. It's been a lot to experience in such a short time."

As Helen lay against his side with her head on his shoulder, Adam reached down to caress her swollen stomach where their child grew. It was amazing to him that he could love a child who as yet was still unseen and growing inside there, but he did. Helen shifted to give him better access and his hand moved across her belly lightly touching the full expanse. She smiled for she was as amazed as Adam at the love she could feel for that unborn child and the love she felt for this man beside her. She had not known what love was but she was learning very fast. She was learning the love of family too. Hoss had been the most welcoming with a gentle touch to her arm or shoulder every time she was near and a kind word as well. She could see the love in his eyes for her simply because she loved his brother. That was all that it took to earn Hoss' love. Ben was a harder sell for he had doubts about Adam marrying a woman about whom he knew so little, but he would do all he could to help them succeed. Joe was apparently bemused by the whole situation and Helen had a difficult time trying to determine if he approved of her or only found the whole situation to be an opportunity to tease Adam unmercifully. Adam told her it was both.

"My family loves you. It will take my father some time to get over his uncertainty about how fast things changed. He doesn't adapt to change easily, but he is happy for us."

"So that explains the choice of verse for the ceremony. He wants us to succeed."

"Oh yes, he wants us to succeed. He's a bit worried, but he's also excited about the prospect of a grandchild. He's waited a long time."

"He might be surprised at the choice of verse I would have picked." Helen had a wicked little grin then. Adam had to ask. "Ah, it's the Song of Solomon. Well, there's a part of that which I was reading and thought of you many months ago. I have to admit, I pulled it out and read it when I was missing you. 'My lover is radiant and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand. His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by the water streams, washed in milk, mounted like jewels. His cheeks are like beds of spice yielding perfume. His lips are like lilies dripping with myrrh. His arms are rods of gold set with chrysolite. His body is like polished ivory decorated with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars. His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely. This is my lover, this my friend' and that is my favorite part of that."

"That is a very high standard to set for me."

"Oh, then you will have to keep trying, won't you. You'll have to try and try and try again. I'll let you know when you've reached it."

"Now that is a husbandly duty that I won't mind doing as often as I can. 'Sweetheart, never ever forget this. You are forever in my heart. 'Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave.' You can never get rid of me. My love for you is forever.' That's another part of it. My father would be impressed knowing that we're resting naked in bed and quoting the Bible to each other."

"It's been over an hour. Do you suppose there's another activity you would like to do now? You do need to see if you can reach that high standard I set for you."

With a smile, Adam did his best to see if he could reach that standard. Helen said it was an excellent try but he would have to do a bit more to reach perfection. He told her he was willing to keep trying even if he had to do that every day for the rest of his life. They spent some time laughing together before they fell asleep. In the morning, they dressed for church not willing to let the gossips in town start up a bunch of stories that they were completely decadent. Ben seemed relieved to see them at church.

"What's wrong, Pa. Were you afraid that I would sully the family honor by spending the morning with my wife at the hotel?"

Ben's reaction showed that was probably very close to the truth of what he was thinking. Joe and Hoss snickered until a scowl from their father made them adopt angelic looks. The five of them proceeded into church in a staid and proper way even as Hoss looked over and caught Helen's eye giving her a big wink. She almost broke into a chuckle again but Adam's squeeze of her hand let her know that wasn't a good idea. After church, Adam invited his family to have lunch with them before he took Helen on a carriage ride around town to look at properties. He could tell that his father disapproved but at least said nothing about it. When he and Helen were taking that ride though, it was clear she had seen the look too.

"Why does your father disapprove of me so?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. I think he may have developed this ideal image of a wife for me over the years and is having a difficult time letting go of it. Certainly none of his wives were quiet little homemakers. I never knew my mother, but every story I've ever heard says that she was outspoken and proud. I knew Inger. She ran a general store pretty much on her own before she married Pa, and no one told her what to do if she didn't want to do it. She could be very pleasant about saying no, but it was still no. And Marie was, well, Marie was one of a kind. She was as high-spirited and unique a woman as you could imagine. She was the opposite of shy and retiring. She stood toe-to-toe with my father so often I'm sure even he cannot remember how many arguments they had. How he thinks that I would be happy with a quiet, demure wife who sits at home cooking and watching over our child as her only activities is beyond me."

"What if I wanted to be a wife who took care of the home and watched over our child?"

Surprised, Adam pulled the carriage to a halt and looked at Helen wondering what was going on. "You've been giving me these looks and saying some of these things like that which have been very out of character or so they seem. I guess that I don't know you well enough to be sure of that, but, sweetheart, what's wrong?"

Once she started, it all came rushing out. "Adam, I'm not so sure any more of anything. I was so sure I knew what I could do, but when I saw Carson City, it was so intimidating. You said Virginia City was smaller so I was thinking I could set up a business here and it wouldn't be so hard, but it would be. I started those businesses in Helena when there was almost nothing there. It was a trading post and not much more. I made a deal with some freight haulers and set up the general store. Then I added the restaurant and hotel later. Once people began settling around there, I built the boardinghouse too. I never had any competition. I was always first with everything I did. The sheriff was the second investor there. He got to be sheriff because we needed someone to keep order and protect our investments. A few other people came along and liked the set-up we had and built a few other businesses too. Travelers still come through. We got the telegraph line because the railroad will go through there. It was all so easy. I know I bragged to you about how I was so good at investing and everything, but it was because I had no competition and I could charge any price I wanted to charge. I don't know how to run a business when there are other businesses who compete."

For a moment, Adam was tempted to talk, but held his comments reaching for Helen instead and holding her. He said nothing for several minutes knowing it would be an insult to tell her how he would fix things. She had to be part of the solution and perhaps the major planner of that. He wanted to let her finish her thought process before he said anything. "So based on that, what are you thinking now?"

Grateful beyond measure that Adam didn't tell her how what to do or not to worry, Helen smiled up at him. "I want time to think about all of this. I don't want to have to decide right away what to do. Instead of looking at property, let's spend time together getting to know each other and preparing for our child to be born. We have lots of time to plan for the future, don't we?"

"Yes, we do. We have lots of time. How about going back to the hotel then? We can have some dessert sent up to the room, and we can talk, or we can find other things to do."

"Yes, that sounds like a wonderful plan. Tomorrow, could we shop for some warmer boots and jacket for me too? I'm cold already, and you told me this is mild weather for this time of year."

As they headed back to the hotel after leaving the carriage at the livery stable, several sets of hostile eyes followed them. Some were jealous of Helen. A few were jealous of Adam. And two were angry at Adam feeling that he had caused problems for their brother's wife and tarnished their brother's reputation. They wanted revenge. The worst possible situation would be if any of them got together and shared their animosity and desire in a plan to hurt Adam and Helen. Unfortunately that winter, that scenario began to play out.

Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks, Adam and Helen talked about what it would be like having a child in the house and what they would need for that big change in their lives. Helen had helped care for children when she had been married but that had been many years earlier. The care she gave had been helping too not the primary care that a mother gave for a child. There was a lot she was going to have to learn. Adam probably had more experience in primary childcare than she did but it was even longer ago when Hoss was a baby and then when Joe was a baby. In both cases, Adam had been only a boy so there had been adults there to tell him what to do most of the time. Ben smiled when they talked like that and told them that he would be available.

"But, Pa, when we have our own house, you won't always be there to tell us what to do."

As soon as Adam said it, he knew that it was another sore point with his father.

"I would be if you would stay here. There's plenty of room and lots of good reasons to keep the family together. We could all help you when you needed help."

Now that he and Helen weren't discussing her establishing a business in town, his father seemed to think that he could convince them to stay in the house. That wasn't going to happen. Adam, even more than Helen, wanted his own home now that he was married and was going to have a child. He had not decided yet how far from his father's house it would be, but the more his father made an issue of it, the more Helen worried that Adam would decide to have it very far away. She didn't have family and had hoped to keep closer contact with her new family. Hoss seemed to be the only one with whom she could discuss it so when he invited her to see a new foal in the stable, she agreed and wrapped herself in her new coat and bundled up in her new scarf, hat, and mittens after she pulled on her new boots. She realized she looked huge with all of that clothing but it was the only way to stay warm. Adam knew better than to say anything, and when he saw that Joe was about to say something, he kicked him lightly on the ankle to stop him.

"Ow, why did you do that?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize that was your leg. I thought it was the chair leg. I'm so used to you having your feet up on the table, I didn't realize they were there."

"Well, you could see they weren't on the table. All you had to do was look."

"Apparently, I wasn't looking then."

Ben intervened then. "She's gone so you can tell him the real reason now."

"Sorry, Joe, but it looked like you were going to make a joke about how big Helen looked when she got all bundled up to go with Hoss to see the foal."

"I was, but why did you have to kick me for that. It was only a joke. She can take a joke."

"Not about that. She's becoming very sensitive about her size. You can ask Pa about that. Women who are with child don't like to be reminded how huge they're becoming. No comments about her weight, all right?"

Ben told Joe that Adam was correct and was being sincere. "It's my experience, Joe, that he is absolutely being straightforward on that. Please do as he asks."

"All right. No jokes about her weight. I'll have to make jokes about your weight then. You have been putting on a few pounds, you know."

Adam rolled his eyes as their father chuckled.

In the stable, the conversation was more serious once Helen had been introduced to the foal. "Hoss, why does your father keep going after Adam like that when we talk? He's making Adam angry, and I don't know why."

"I don't rightly know why either. I know at first, he was worrying about Adam marrying up with you. I told him not to worry. I told him that I thought you and Adam were real good together. I saw how Adam was with you, and I figured you was good for him, and I saw the way he looks at you so I figured he was good for you too."

"Doesn't your father think I'm good for Adam?"

"Shur, I think he does, but last year, he was so worried that he lost Adam. For a while there, we thought he had been killed. Then we didn't know where he was, and he took so long coming home. When he got here, he wasn't the same man who left neither. Besides them scars on his back, he's different. It ain't like the same Adam. The things that happened changed him some."

"That's natural, isn't it? Our experiences will change us, but he's still a good man, a good son, and a good brother."

"Yep, he shur is, and maybe even better than he was before, but he changed. Pa ain't so good with change. Now Adam is talking about changing more. I guess Pa was thinking ifn he stayed here, maybe he'd be getting back to being more like his old self again."

"What do you think, Hoss?"

"I think that's like thinking I could put this foal back inside the mare there. It can't be done. What's done is done and there ain't no going back. Pa will come around. You gotta give him more time. I think by the time your baby is born, he'll be ready to accept things being the way they are."

"I'm afraid that if it takes that long, it may hurt his relationship with Adam. The things that he's been saying are making Adam angry. You know how Adam can get when he's angry. The more your father pushes him, the angrier he gets especially when your father argues with him on issues that he has told him are settled because he and I have made a decision. It makes me a bit angry too because he seems to think that my opinion doesn't matter as much as his does."

"Yeah, Pa can be that way sometimes. He don't always seem to know when Adam's about to blow."

"Hoss, Adam seems to have a lot of anger inside of him. It's more than I thought when I first met him. Sometimes I think he's going to explode, but then he's with me, and it seems to disappear."

"Yeah, he had a lot of bad happen and some he couldn't do nothing about. I think he's still upset about it. He'll come to terms with it, but you're right that it don't do him no good to have Pa pricking at him about little stuff while he's sorting through things."

"It makes me want to tell Adam to go ahead and rent that house in town that he's mentioned doing a few times when he's been the most upset with your father. He said we could rent and then begin building as soon as he can draw up the plans."

"Listen, I'll make a deal with you. I'll start working on Pa to back off on those things he's been saying and to show more respect for you and what you think, and you work on Adam to hold off on making a decision when he's mad. Get him to wait until the baby is born at least before you two decide where you're gonna build a house. Ya can't hardly start building anything until spring anyway."

"Hoss, now I know why Adam has so much respect for you. He said he leans on you more than anyone else in his life because you have all the qualities of a healer and an advisor. I can see why he thinks that. I want to thank you too for welcoming me here so warmly. You have made me feel more comfortable here than I could have expected anyone to do."

"Well, we better get you back inside before you catch a chill. Adam's gonna be worrying about you soon enough even with your new coat and boots."

Helen agreed because she knew he was correct in that regard. By the time they got back to the house, Adam was about to come find them. She told him he need not worry when she was with Hoss because he protected her as well as Adam did. It was late then and they went up to bed. It was getting closer to delivery, and every night Adam massaged oil into the tight skin of Helen's belly. Hop Sing had told them it would help her feel more comfortable. It did seem to help her sleep at night. As he massaged the oil gently, he felt the baby move. That always made him smile, and Helen always smiled when she saw him smile.

"I feel kind of silly smiling all the time when I feel him move or kick, but no matter how often I feel it, it still gives me that sense of happiness like nothing else ever has."

"I know. It makes me feel more complete when it's the three of us like this, but, Adam, I'm starting to get a little bit scared. It's getting close now."

"Yes, and Doctor Martin said you should have nothing to worry about."

"Except hours and hours of pain, and then not having the slightest idea what to do when that baby gets here."

"You'll do fine. We'll do fine."

Adam continued to reassure Helen right up to and through the delivery of their son. He however was anything but as confident as he led her to believe. Hoss fulfilled his role as the supportive brother there too knowing that Adam would worry about Helen. He did manage to get Ben to back off on his critical attitude by making him aware of the effect he was having, but he was there too to talk Adam through his worries about Helen surviving the delivery with the same arguments that Doctor Martin had used that Helen was a strong and healthy woman who despite her age should have no trouble with the delivery of a healthy baby. Luckily it did turn out that way, and Bennett Adam Cartwright with his dark curly hair made his parents, grandfather, and uncles very happy except when he woke at three in the morning and that happened almost every night.

When Bennett was christened, it silenced some of the gossips in town who had delighted in spreading the stories of the supposedly gold-digging Helen who had gotten herself impregnated by some man and then claimed Adam was the father or so the story went that was the most popular. The resemblance that Bennett had to Adam made that story less plausible, but there were those who continued to spread the lie because they were so jealous of Helen that nothing was going to convince them that Adam had fallen in love with her. They assumed that there had to have been some trickery of some sort for him to marry a woman from far off Helena, Nevada when there were so many attractive women in Virginia City who would have agreed in a heartbeat to a proposal of marriage from Adam.

One of the ladies, Martha Mae Westcott, was a widow whose husband had lost all of his money in poor investments and died from too much gambling when he couldn't cover his debts and found himself at the wrong end of a duel in the street. Destitute, with two children to support, Martha had made a play for Adam whom she had once thought she might marry before he went off to school in the east and her parents pushed her to marry Westcott. Adam had shown little interest in her however, and then had gone off in that blasted Nevada regiment the year before. She ended up having to take a job as a saloon girl because she had no other way of making enough money to keep her house and pay off her husband's debts. Too proud to ask anyone for money, she had an irrational anger at Adam for what had happened to her. When two brothers who frequented the saloon talked of how they would like to get some revenge on Adam Cartwright, she began to pay attention thinking that there might be a way for her to get some money and some revenge and perhaps even to remove Helen from the picture opening the way for her again. One night as they complained that they had no place to sleep because they were out of work again, she saw her chance and sat down at their table.

"Gentlemen, I overheard you. I have a house with a spare room. My husband died over a year ago, and the place needs some work. I would be willing to trade the room for you doing repair work and clean-up around my house. That's all I'm offering. I'm a respectable woman. I only do this job because I need the money to support my two children."

"Martha Mae, that's the best offer we've had in a long time. Sleeping in a real bed would be a blessing. We ain't had much good luck either for a long time. Things ain't been going well for us. Now we would be looking for work so this would be temporary."

"Yes, we would be working together on this only for the time being while we both stand to benefit." All smiled and the two brothers waited until she was done with work and walked her home that night as she began to formulate a plan.

Chapter 3

In spring, Adam did build his house. He and Helen moved in as soon as they could anxious to have their own home. When Ben was helping Adam pack up the last of his personal possessions from the house, Ben reacted to Adam's statement that Helen could now start thinking about what kind of business she wanted to develop. "I thought that Helen had given up on that silly plan to start her own business." Ben knew those were the wrong words the moment he said them. They were the thoughts he had, but Hoss had been counseling him wisely on how not to antagonize his oldest son. Adam had a great deal of patience and more tolerance for many people than he had before, but somehow less for his father especially when Ben was critical in any way. For Ben to use such a poor choice of words was a significant mistake. He knew he had to let Adam vent before he could properly apologize.

"First of all, it was not a silly plan. It was a smart plan to use the money she had from businesses she built to invest in another business. Secondly, she did not give up on that plan. We simply postponed a decision until Bennett was born and we could build our house. Now the house is completed, and we want to think about what we want to do next."

"I apologize for my choice of words. I should never have said that. What I should have said was that I wish that you and she would reconsider using that money outside the Ponderosa. We would be happy to have her invest in the ranch in any way she wished. There are many opportunities here for investment. You have had many ideas over the years of businesses we could expand into and any of those would be welcome additions."

"Any of them?"

"Yes, any of them. I know that I have opposed your ideas in the past, but you have to realize it was because I saw them as too risky to the overall operation."

"But if we were risking Helen's money instead of yours, it would be all right with you."

"I know that sounds quite bad when you say it like that, but any investment she makes, or that the two of you make, would be a risk. Why not risk it on the Ponderosa? At least you know we would be there to help in any way that we could. That should make it less risky at least."

There was an idea that Adam had, but he wasn't ready to broach it with his father yet. He hadn't even brought it up with Helen yet. He wasn't sure that she was ready for the idea either. For now, she was busy finishing the decorating and outfitting of their home which was only about thirty minutes away from the main house but closer to Virginia City and with a more spectacular view. It was an excellent location for the business idea that Adam had in mind. He nodded. "All right. I'll talk things over with Helen, but I'm not going to push her in any particular direction. It's her money."

Ben wanted to say something about that too, but he held back. He found himself doing that quite a lot, but he did find that his relationship with Adam was better when he did. He and Hoss had quite a few discussions about it. Neither knew why Adam was so sensitive to any criticism by his father, but he was. So while that was the situation, Ben had agreed that he would try to be accommodating. He, like Helen and Hoss, could tell that there was still some anger within Adam that needed to come out, but he was holding it in. He had not had the catharsis he needed to cleanse his heart and soul of the terrible experiences he had had while in that Nevada regiment and some of the events that followed that. Ben remembered the heart wrenching sobs when they had found Adam in the desert after his ordeal with that madman Kane. It had been difficult to witness but it had been necessary too for Adam to release those demons. He had shed tears too when he had been forced to kill his best friend Ross. But when Laura left him for Will, he had bottled up the anger and the resentment letting it fester for a long time. Now the pain and torment of what had happened the previous year was doing the same, but no one knew how to help him let it go. When the Army had issued their revised report, Ben had hoped that would be enough, but Adam had received that news quietly. It had not been enough. He seemed at peace and relaxed only when he was with Helen. If only for that, Ben had come to love his daughter-in-law despite finding her not at all what he thought that Adam would choose for a wife. He had formed the image of an ideal wife for Adam, and Helen was quite different from those standards. He was learning though to appreciate her for whom she was and not to expect her to meet his ideal. She quite obviously met Adam's expectations for a wife for he had never seen his son so happy in the company of any woman before Helen. He had asked Adam once what had attracted him so much to Helen, and Adam had answered in his style.

"If God loves a cheerful giver, how could I not? Hoss told me that part about her, but I already knew the rest. 'Ah, we know what we are but not what we may be', and she is willing to take the risk with me."

"Sometimes, I wish you could give me a simple straight answer."

"That is the simple straight answer to a very complex question that you asked. I have thought about that quite a lot."

For some time, Ben had thought about what Adam had said. Because Hoss had explained the first part to Adam, he finally asked Hoss about it. Hoss told him it was because all the other women always wanted something from Adam, but Helen wanted to give him something, her love. That made sense to Ben. In time, he understood the second part too. Adam still had questions about his future. He still had unfulfilled dreams and wanted to find a way to finish them. Helen supported him in that quest and was willing to make adjustments in her life to accommodate any changes that might become necessary. Ben knew then why Adam needed to make a separate home with Helen although he still wished that somehow he could have held the whole family in one big house. He accepted that was an unrealistic dream to have, although Hoss reassured him that if he married, he planned on staying because he wasn't sure he could survive without Hop Sing.

The first evening that Adam and Helen spent in their new home, they sat before the fireplace after dinner enjoying the warmth of the fire and resting after what had been a long day of hard work. Bennett rested in Adam's arms but began squirming soon after they sat down. Helen took him and sighed.  
"He's hungry. I'll take him upstairs to his bedroom and nurse him."

"No, nurse him right here."

"Right here in the middle of the house?"

"Yes, it's our house, and we're the only ones here. You don't have to go hide away in a bedroom now. You can nurse him right here. I would like to sit here while you do it."

For a moment, it felt a bit strange to Helen, but Adam wrapped an arm around her shoulders and had her lean into him as Bennett began nursing. Adam watched his son nurse, and smiled down at him as he suckled vigorously.

"No wonder he's growing so fast. He eats like he's starving."

"Yes, he does that every time. I have to slow him down so he doesn't spit it all up."

"How do you slow him down?"

So Helen pulled their son away from nursing and put him up on her shoulder to burp him. Once he did that, she put him back to nursing and he was as enthusiastic as he had been originally. Bennett nursed so fast that he took in quite a lot of air. Doctor Martin had told her not to worry but simply to burp him more often. It worked. When he was full, he closed his eyes. Adam marveled at how easily he could be read.

"I had no idea how well he could communicate with you. I've never been so close to you when you nursed him. I could hear every slurp and burp."

"He's growing so fast and he's always so hungry that Hop Sing said that I should try giving him some mashed up food. He told me what to try first in small amounts to see what he would tolerate the best. I didn't want to try it while we were busy with the move, but tomorrow morning, I think I'll try some of that rice cereal that Hop Sing recommended."

"Oh, so that's why you had me buy the rice flour and rice. I was surprised to see those things on the list. Of course with everything that was on that list, we have enough food in there to last for about six months."

"Well, you said we were going to have a cook and possibly a man to take care of things around the place. I would like that very much, but they're going to have to eat too. I think it's going to be a bit unnerving for me to be here alone when you go off to work on the ranch."

"If it bothers you too much, I won't do that until our cook starts. She said she could start next Monday. It's only five days away."

"No, I'll be fine. I'll keep myself busy with things that have to be done. It's really only three days because then it will be Saturday, and you said we're going to town to do some shopping, and then it's Sunday, and we'll be with the family."

"I'll stop back here for lunch if I can. No, I will find a way to stop back here every day. That way, you won't have to get through so many hours without a break."

"I know you mean to do that, but if you can't, could you send somebody else to check on me? I would feel better having somebody stop by."

"That I can certainly promise to do."

The next day, when Adam left to go work on the ranch as he had promised his father and brothers, Helen said she was fine. As she watched Adam ride away and she stepped back into the house, she knew she wasn't fine. It made her very nervous to be alone. She looked at Bennett in her arms and apologized to him when she laid him in his cradle by the fireplace.

"I told your father I was fine. That wasn't the whole truth. I thought I could handle this, but I need to make some adjustments."

Moving around the first floor, Helen closed the shutters and barred them, and then barred the front door and the kitchen door. Once the house was closed up tightly and as secure as Adam had made it the night before when they went up to bed, she went back to Bennett and picked him up.

"There, now that's better. Let's go up to my bedroom. That window can stay open and the sun is shining in. I'll do my sewing up there, and we can have some nice quiet time together. How's that?"

She smiled at Bennett and he smiled back at her and began cooing at her. She nuzzled his cheeks getting a giggle from him. Soon they were upstairs enjoying the morning until two men rode up to the house. Helen didn't recognize them, and they came from the direction of town and not from the direction of the ranch. It was too soon for Adam to have sent anyone to check on her. It made her nervous. She quickly picked up Bennett and carried him to his crib where he began to complain immediately. She tried to shush him but he didn't want to stop fussing. She had to leave him there and hurry down the stairs to get the pistol from Adam's desk before going to the front door when there was a heavy knock upon it.

Chapter 4

Working in the pastures of the Ponderosa with the backdrop of the eastern Sierras, one could often hear sounds from great distances. When three gunshots were heard in rapid succession, it made Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe pause in their work immediately and look at each other. It was the universal family signal for trouble. The only one not with them was their father, but the sound came from the opposite direction. It took only seconds for Adam to turn his horse and begin to gallop toward his home. His brothers quickly followed him knowing that the only other person who would likely have fired those shots, unless it was some strange coincidence, was Helen. They were probably a good hard fifteen minute ride away from the house and every moment of that time, Adam's heart was pounding in fear for what might have happened to have led to that signal for help. When he raced up to his house, he found the doors and windows barred. He knocked and called to Helen and was greatly relieved to hear the bar on the front door being removed. When Helen opened the door with Bennett in her arms, he pulled her to him.

"What happened? Did you fire those shots?"

Helen's voice was muffled by being pressed in Adam's embrace even as she held Bennett and made sure that Adam didn't overdue his hold on them. She pressed a little to get him to release her so she could explain.

"What happened? Tell me."

"I will if you'll calm down a little. You're scaring Bennett, and I only got him to stop crying a moment ago." Bennett had started mewling and was working his way toward a full blown cry. Adam backed off and did his best to control his voice as Helen held Bennett and hummed softly to him to soothe him. "Come in, all of you, and I'll explain." Helen forced herself to move slowly and deliberately as she had for the past half hour. She sat in the rocking chair and slowly rocked Bennett. Adam could see how pale she was, and that despite her effort to remain calm, her hands were trembling and there was a tremor in her voice. He saw that all the windows were shuttered and barred as well. He didn't know if that happened before or after she fired the shots, but the handle of his pistol was evident now in the pocket of her apron.

"Helen, let me hold Bennett."

At first reluctant to relinquish the small bundle, Adam's hands reaching out for their son seemed to reassure her enough. She stood and stepped toward Adam to hand Bennett to him. Then she nearly fainted but Hoss was there and with Joe's help got her back into the rocking chair. She began to shake and Hoss told Joe to go into the kitchen to get a glass of water for her. He reached for the throw in the basket next to the rocking chair and wrapped it around Helen as Adam soothed Bennett. Once Joe was back with the glass of water, Hoss told Helen to drink half of it without stopping. She followed his instructions and gulped it down. It seemed to calm her. She took some deep breaths then.. Hoss smiled at her and asked if she was ready to talk. In a shaky voice she responded.

"Yes, I think I can do it now. Some men, well, two men came riding up to the house. I was already nervous about being alone and I had closed all the windows and the doors. It was lucky I had. They knocked but I asked who they were. They said they had come to check on me because they knew my husband was off working. Now that was just wrong. I wouldn't open the door. They tried to push in, but Adam made really strong doors."

"What happened then? Why did you have to fire the shots?"

"I went upstairs because that's where I left Bennett. I was going to watch to make sure those men left, but they didn't leave. One of them stood on his horse and used it to climb on the porch roof. He was coming toward the bedroom window. I didn't know what to do. Adam, I never shot anyone. I didn't think that I could so I used the only other thing I could think of to use."

Frowning, Adam tried to think of what could be up in their bedroom that Helen could have used for a weapon. He couldn't think of anything. "What did you do, sweetheart? How did you stop them from coming in the window?"

"I threw the water from Bennett's bucket on him? Oh, Adam, he was so angry. He used some terrible language, but he left. I could hear him yelling down there. That's when I fired three shots out the window. I think they thought I was shooting at them. They rode out of here very fast heading toward town."

By then, Adam was having a hard time suppressing a smile even with the great concern he had over the threat that had been made against his wife and child. Hoss and Joe had to ask and did so almost in unison.

"What's Bennett's bucket?"

Helen looked a bit embarrassed so Adam answered. "Helen doesn't like to dry and reuse diapers even though women told her that was the thing to do. She doesn't like the smell. She takes every diaper that Bennett soils and drops it in a bucket of soapy water in our bedroom. It's really a chamber pot. Then I carry it to the laundry room and she wrings them out and launders them. The contents of that bucket can be rather ripe after a day or so."

"So she threw the dirty diapers on the man?"

"I'm afraid that's about it.  
"Yes, there's quite a mess upstairs, I'm afraid. Adam, there are dirty diapers on the roof and lying on the floor of our bedroom. I was trying to clean things up, but Bennett was very scared by the pistol shots and I had to hold him, and it was all so frightening."

By then, Joe was snickering and Hoss was having a more and more difficult time not laughing openly. Adam was holding back but Helen could see the smile that he was suppressing. When he said he would have liked to see the man draped with poopy diapers, she had to smile too, and it was as if that was a signal that all of them could laugh. They did, and the tension in the room was released. The image of the man riding away draped in dirty diapers may not have been accurate but it was useful in helping her calm her nerves.

"I don't know what those two men wanted, but it wasn't a friendly visit. Adam, they must have been watching to know you were gone. They came shortly after you left. If I hadn't barred the doors and windows, they would have gotten in here."

"You were that scared of being alone?" Helen nodded reluctantly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Adam, I wanted to, and I didn't want to seem so helpless. It's just that I've never lived anywhere so alone as this. I've always had people around. This is all very new to me and it scared me especially because now I have to protect Bennett. I can't let anything happen to him. I don't know if I can stay here at all unless I have some help."

By that time several hands from the ranch were at the door wondering if there was any trouble after seeing the three brothers ride so hard for the house. Adam asked if two of them would stay at the house before he turned back to Helen and his brothers. "I'm going to town to see if I can find the two men who tried to break in here. Hoss, Joe, you coming with me?"

Both nodded immediately. Adam turned to Helen alone then. "Will you be all right with two men here until I get back?"

"I'll be fine as long as you tell me that these are two trusted men from the ranch."

"They are. They are two of our best. They wouldn't have come racing after us if they weren't. I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll see if the woman I hired to be our cook can come sooner than Monday. Then we'll work out something else too to make sure you feel safe here. All right?"

Within minutes, Adam rode with his brothers to town. There was no point in trying to track the two men because their tracks would blend with all the other tracks on the busy road when they neared town. However, it was possible that one men wet and smelling like diapers might attract some notice. They hoped so, but when they got to town, they were unable to find a single person who had seen a pair of men ride into town much less one who was wet and stinky. It made no sense to them. Sheriff Roy Coffee of course caught up to them and wondered what they were doing so they filled him in on what had happened.

"Now I spent the morning walking around town and never seen anything like that. Never saw two men riding in from that direction neither. They must have split up or stopped somewhere before they got all the way into town. Did you check the livery stables to see if about any men renting any horses?"

They had and there had been no information there either. Having exhausted all avenues of inquiry, Hoss and Joe stopped to get some lunch with Roy while Adam went to see the woman who was going to be his full time cook and housekeeper. Adam explained that he wanted her services sooner if possible, and she said she would make arrangements to start the next day if that was all right but that she would need Sunday off for her father's birthday party. Adam agreed and said he would be back the next morning to pick her up, but she said her father would give her a ride to his house. He worked on the Ponderosa and would have her there by seven. That gave Adam another idea.

"Does your father still rent that little house?"

"Yes, he does. He and my brother will live there until my brother is old enough to get a full time job too."

"How old is your brother?"

"He's fifteen. He finished school, but he's small for his age. Pa said he's like him and won't likely get his full height for another two or three years. He's good with his hands though so he does odd jobs for all sorts of people around town."

The conversation had given Adam an idea, and it was one that he needed to discuss with Helen and with his father but it had some good possibilities for resolving several problems. He smiled and thanked Amanda for agreeing to start the next day. By the time he got back to his brothers, he was still smiling.

At her house, Martha Mae was not smiling at all. "You were supposed to scare her and threaten her. You weren't supposed to try to break into the house. I saw those Cartwrights riding into town. You're lucky you had a place to come where no one could see you or smell you. Otherwise you'd both be in jail now."

"Maybe our plans are different than yours. Maybe we want to get some money out of this instead of only making trouble for Missus Cartwright."

"What were you planning to do?"

"We figured on snatching the woman and the kid. He'd go crazy with them gone. We'd ask for some money for 'em. We'd get the money, and you could go console him in his sorrow. He'd never be the same though losing both of them like that."

"You wouldn't hurt the baby though, would you?"

"Nah, I could never hurt a kid. Maybe we should think about just keeping her. We could take the money and her and leave. That would make him just about as unhappy. You could have him and the kid. He'd need somebody to take care of the kid anyway. How does that suit ya?"

Thinking about their plan, Martha realized it might work better than her plan. She had hoped to terrorize Helen and frighten her until she could make her abandon Adam. It was possibly an unrealistic plan. The plan that Ira and Dain Murdock had cooked up seemed like it was a better option, and it had the additional benefit of getting rid of Helen more permanently. She had little doubt that the two men would kill the woman when they tired of her. They would not leave any witnesses behind. She didn't seem to realize that she was a witness too. She agreed to cooperate in their new plan. The two men smiled. Dressed in clean dry clothing, Ira sat down with his brother Dain and enjoyed a nice lunch with their co-conspirator and hostess. Dain reached out and patted her rump as she placed a platter of food on the table. He was getting more and more bold in his attempts to seduce the woman. She no longer fended off all of those attempts. Ira guessed that soon Dain would be in her bed but not when her two children were home. But they were in school now so the afternoon might get very interesting.

Chapter 5

The next time that Ira and Dain were out to watch Adam's house and prepare their plan to kidnap Helen to hold her for ransom, they had an unpleasant surprise that made them have to reconsider their whole plan. Adam was building a small house near his home and it seemed that there were now three more people living at his home. They weren't sure what had happened, but it was a major complication in their plans.

What had happened was that Adam had come up with a complex solution to a number of different issues. After discussing them with Helen, he had broached the subjects with his father and gotten his acceptance to try out the ideas. There were several married men who worked on the Ponderosa. A couple were like Amanda's father, Franklin, and lived in town and made the daily trek to the Ponderosa to work because their children needed a home and needed to go to school. During roundups and drives, Franklin had to find others to watch over his children until they were old enough to care for themselves. Others lived on the Ponderosa in the bunkhouse with the other men and only saw their families on Saturday nights and Sundays at best, and sometimes missed those days going weeks at a time without seeing their families. Adam's solution was that he would build several houses near his home and the married hands would have their families live there. It was closer to town but still on the Ponderosa. For those who had children old enough to attend school, Helen agreed to have a school. She could work with the small number of students who would get more individual attention than they would in a larger school. The benefit for Helen was that it would give her a small community to make her feel safe and an occupation that she loved. There were other possibilities in the small community that could develop, and Bennett would have other children there as well as school close by so that there would be no dangerous travel for him when he was older. It seemed that it was a solution that brought about a great deal of protection for Adam's family and many benefits for the married men who worked on the Ponderosa.

For the time being though, what it meant was that there was a small house being built near Adam's home, and Amanda and her brother Tony were at Adam's house every day, and their father Franklin was there at night as well. Tony and Franklin were temporarily bunking in the tack room of the small stable which was also due to be expanded, but Amanda was living in the housekeeper's room off the kitchen. Helen was comfortable with the arrangement, and she and Amanda got on quite well. Tony was hired to do work around the house for Adam, and there were wood working projects that Adam thought that they could do together. There was no need for Helen to bar the doors and windows against intruders, and Adam didn't have to worry about her every day as he went to work.

After seeing all the activity at Adam's house, Dain and Ira rode back to Martha Mae's place in a foul mood. They discussed some possibilities on the way wondering how they could ruin Adam's life and get some money for themselves now that kidnapping Helen from her home looked much more difficult if it was even possible. Getting Helen out of the picture, which was Martha Mae's desire, was not of any importance to them other than making Martha think it was important to them so that she continued to let them live at her house. What they wanted was revenge on Adam, and that was going to be more difficult to accomplish with the changes he had made.

As Dain and Ira rode back into town, their arrival was noticed by Sheriff Roy Coffee who made a note of where they were staying. It seemed odd to him and he decided he needed to keep an eye on those two men wondering what they could be doing staying at a saloon girl's house and riding out of town in the direction of the Ponderosa and back again. It made him wonder if they could have been the two who had tried to break into Adam's house. He decided to do a little checking around town about the two. It didn't take long for him to discover that their brother, Jules, had been one of the men to die in Turnbull's regiment and that the two of them had been part of the group who had been most vocal about Adam until the Army issued their revised report clearing him of any wrongdoing. It was all light circumstantial evidence, but it was enough for Roy to talk to Clem and the other deputies and have them start watching for any unusual activity by any of the three. It was premature to mention his suspicions to Adam because he didn't want to start any trouble where there might not be any grounds. He had a feeling though that there was a lot of fire behind the smoke that he saw in this case. He wasn't sure though what they had in mind because he didn't see a connection between their anger at Adam and trying to break into Adam's house when he wasn't there, but he had enough experience with criminals to know that their minds didn't work the way ordinary minds worked.

They certainly didn't. Martha Mae was coming up with a scheme at that point that did appeal in some ways to Dain and Ira. "We blackmail Helen Cartwright with a note from a man who says he was with her and he's the father of her child. She was alone all those months before Adam went back there. She must have been with a man in that time. The note can say he's going to give his story to the Territorial Enterprise if she doesn't come up with a thousand dollars."

"Make it five thousand dollars. We got a lot of living we want to do and we can use more money than a thousand." Martha was getting sweet on Dain so she agreed and changed the plan to that amount.

"When she pays up, then there's the proof that she was unfaithful. When Adam finds that out, he'll dump her and the bastard that isn't his son. They'll both be gone."

"And he'll be looking for some comfort, and you'll be right there." Ira snickered because like Dain he knew that they would make sure that Adam would be along with his wife when she was set to deliver the money and that would be the end of him. He would never see another day, and they would have the money. They would let Martha think she was running the whole show but would make a few alterations in the plan. Before they left, she would be silenced. They regretted that her children would also probably have to be silenced but they had lived there too long, and the children knew their names although their mother had told them that they could tell no one that she had boarders.

"How will we get the note to her without being seen? There's a lot of people living at his place now."

"She comes into town often enough. She likes to visit with the ladies at the bookstore. We can watch for her to be in town, and then put the letter in her carriage while she's in the bookstore yapping away and showing off that brat of hers. Where should we set up for the money to be delivered?" Once they had discussed all the details, Martha got busy writing the letter and adding in salacious details that she thought a man who had been intimate with a woman might say. Dain and Ira offered ideas as she wrote. They picked a spot for the money to be delivered and a time frame after the note was received. Then it was only a matter of waiting for the opportunity to deliver the letter and set the chain of events in motion.

That occurred only a few days later. Helen drove the buggy to town to buy some items to decorate the house that was being finished for Franklin and Tony to use. She had the large carriage and made a number of purchases at the general store leaving the carriage there to be loaded by Tony who had accompanied her with the items while she took Bennett to her favorite stop in town, the bookstore, to see if there were any new books that she and Adam might enjoy. She was delighted to find a book of poetry by Walt Whitman and was excited to have that to present to Adam when she got home. She almost didn't see the letter on the seat of the carriage when she got there with her treasure. She settled Bennett in and stowed the book away before she saw the corner of the letter poking up in the back of the cushioned seat. She pulled it out, opened the envelope, and began to read the letter before looking up in shock and surveying the street wondering who could have left such a terrible thing for her. She didn't see Martha Mae looking out of the window of the mercantile nor did she notice Ira and Dain Gillie watching from the chairs in front of the saloon across the street. They had their hats tipped down as if they were taking a siesta but were watching intently as she read the note.

"She's gonna tell him, ain't she?"

"Yup, jest like we figured. She's so upset right now, she can't wait to get home and hand this problem off to him."

"What if he don't bring the money? What if he jest comes to take care of whoever wrote the note?"

"Either way, he can't stop a rifle bullet. We'll get in position in them rocks up above and shoot him long before he ever gets to the spot where we said he should drop off the money. We'll take his horse and rifle and such at the least. Ifn he ain't go the money, then we got that at least."

"Yeah, I'm tired of waiting to get even. Let's get it over with and move on outta here. Since Jules got killed, it ain't been a friendly place for us at all. We could head south to Arizona maybe. Nobody knows us there."

"I was thinking the same thing. That's why I picked that spot down that way for the drop-off point. Besides the fact we can see him coming for miles."

"We take care of Martha Mae and the brats before we leave?"

"Yeah, it's too bad about the kids, but they know our names. We take care of them, and nobody knows who done anything."

Sitting in her carriage waiting for Tony to return from errands he was running for Adam, Helen was noticeably upset. Sheriff Roy Coffee noticed and walked over to see what was wrong. When he asked, Helen told him she had gotten some bad news and needed to talk with Adam.

"Is it in that note you got there?"

"It is, but Roy, I can't show you. I have to show Adam first. I hope you understand."

"I do, but I think it might be a good idea ifn I was to ride to your place with you. Now ifn you could wait a few minutes, I'll get my horse. I'll let Clem know I'll be gone for a bit. You do your best to rest easy here. Can you do that?"

"I have to wait for Tony. He had some things to do for Adam. He should be back here soon. Adam wouldn't let me go to town by myself. I always have someone with me, and he trusts Tony. He's a reliable young man."

"That's good then. You two wait for me ifn he gets back before I do."

When Tony was driving the carriage with Roy riding beside it, Adam knew something was wrong, but Helen was holding Bennett and neither looked to be in physical distress. As he got close to them, he could see that Helen was emotionally upset although trying to hold it together, and Roy looked worried. Tony volunteered to take care of the carriage and all of the packages. Adam helped Helen from the carriage and escorted her to the house knowing that Roy would be following them inside. As soon as the door closed and he had Helen seated in a chair, he turned to Roy who pointed to Helen. When he turned back, Helen handed him the letter. He read it and anyone could have seen the fury build in his features and his demeanor. He looked to Roy.

"Did you read this?"

"No, your wife wanted you to see it first."

Adam handed it to him, and turned back to Helen. She looked at his angry face and got worried.

"You don't believe any of that, do you?"

Chapter 6

Going down on one knee by Helen, Adam took one of her hands in his and placed his other hand on Bennett who was sleeping in her lap. "No, I don't believe a word of it. You told me you had been with no one else, and you told me that Bennett was mine. I trust you and believe you."

Helen started to cry then making Bennett stir and begin to fuss. Adam slid a hand underneath him and picked him up putting him against his shoulder and soothing him but staying next to Helen. Once Bennett calmed, Adam took her hand again and this time stood and pulled her up with him so she would move and sit beside him on their couch. Roy had held back unwilling to interrupt the couple, but now Adam motioned for him to join them and to take the chair that Helen had vacated. Roy sat and then had a few things to say.

"Adam, I know you're probably right upset about all of this. I got to say, I understand that. This is a slander, and ifn it gets out, the gossip wouldn't die down for a long time. Now, I think I got an idea who might be behind all of this. I saw two of 'em across the street from your Helen there when she was so upset. They was looking like they didn't care never so much, but they was watching. I would guess that Martha Mae wasn't too far off."

"Martha Mae, the saloon girl?" Helen suddenly perked up with that reference. "Roy, she was in the store. I saw her looking out the window when I got there because I looked to see if Tony was in the store. She was in there."

"Well, that about corks it for me."

Adam was perturbed at the lack of information though. "Roy, corks what? What does Martha Mae and these other two have to do with anything?"

"All, righty, now let me start at the beginning. About the time you had two men try to break in here, I noticed that two men, Ira and Dain Gillie come riding into town from the direction of the Ponderosa. Now I know them two is outta work cause they're almost always outta work. But they went right on in to Martha Mae's place out there on the edge of town. It seemed strange to me so I had Clem and my other deputies keep an eye out for them. They been going in and out of town several times always in the direction of the Ponderosa, and they been staying at Martha Mae's place."

Then it was Helen's turn to be perturbed at the lack of information. "Why is any of that significant?"

"Sweetheart, Ira and Dain are Jules Gillie's brothers. Jules was a mean, nasty bastard and died with Turnbull in the Shoshone retaliation for what was done to their camp in that massacre that the Army calls a mistake in judgment. Ira and Dain Gillie aren't much better although, to your face, they can seem nice and friendly, but behind your back, they're as mean and nasty as Jules ever was. You can't trust them. They'll do anything they can get away with. No one ever met anyone as selfish and as self-centered as that set."

"I remember the father, Adam. Janus was a black-hearted scoundrel. He come out here from New York and brought nothing but trouble with him. Janus lied so much and so often that he couldn't tell the truth from a lie. I think he rightly believed things he said cause he said 'em so often he got to thinking they really happened. Janus never loved nothing and nobody except himself. Those offspring of his followed in his footsteps. Janus was the worst of the worst. I remember more than one person saying that anus as part of his given name was well deserved, pardon, me, ma'am."

With a smile, Helen nodded but had another question. "But why is Martha Mae mixed up in this? She's not part of that family, is she?"

"Not as far as I know, she ain't." Roy noticed that Adam was a bit embarrassed about this part so he decided he would explain it for him. "But you see, Martha's been carrying her heart on her sleeve for Adam ever since she was about fifteen and he went off to school. I think he was right glad to escape her that way. She can have a way of grabbing on to a man and not letting go. She did that with her husband. Most think she drove him into his grave always wanting more from him. Poor man worked himself into an early death. When he died more than two years ago now, word around town was that Martha made no secret that she was now free for Adam to come calling. He didn't so she set out to try to make him take notice. Instead he went off into that Nevada regiment, and you know all that happened then. Martha, I'm thinking, is a mite unhappy with both of you right now, but probably especially with Helen here."

Adam put out his hand for the note and Roy gave it back to him. After looking at it for another minute, he looked up with pursed lips and had a conclusion. "I think a woman wrote this note. If you listen to the phrasing, it sounds more like someone who was being told what to write instead of someone remembering what they did. It's all in the first person and there's no mention of anything about the two of us or we or us. It's actually very impersonal for something that should have been very personal and intimate."

Helen took it from his hands then and examined it much the way that he had and drew the same conclusion once she was able to look at it analytically and not emotionally. "Yes, it's written more like someone who's writing about what someone else did and trying to make it seem as if they did it. The handwriting is very beautiful, and I'm not saying that it couldn't have been done by a man. Adam writes very beautifully as does his father, but most men do not, especially, I would think, a man who needs to blackmail someone for five thousand dollars."

"The other thing that has me worried some is that they want that money delivered twenty miles south of here. That's some pretty desolate territory. I'm thinking they don't really expect Helen to be making that delivery. They're expecting you, Adam. And if they're expecting you, I'm thinking they're not planning on you riding away from there alive. Ifn it's that Dain and Ira Gillie, we know why too."

"So we need a plan."

The next half hour was spent in creating a plan. Roy left then and a half hour later, Adam followed him to town to do his part. Roy's part was to find Clem and walk with him until they were near wherever Ira, Dain, or Martha Mae were. The Roy and Clem were going to have a short scripted conversation.

"So, Helen wouldn't tell you why she was so upset?"

"Nope, that she wouldn't. I could tell she was though, so I rode all the way out there. She wouldn't talk to me at all. I finally got her to her home, and Adam, polite as you please, tells me he'll take care of it."

"Sometimes those Cartwrights think they can handle things by themselves when they would be better off asking us to help."

"You know it and I know it. Now if we could get that stubborn Cartwrights to know it, my job would be a mite easier, let me tell you. Well, now, all we can do is wait. Something is going on there. We'll keep our eyes open and be ready if trouble comes calling."

"You want me to tell you if I see Adam or Helen in town."

"Do that, or keep an eye on them and see what they're up to. Then come tell me and maybe we can figure out what's going on."

With that, the sheriff and his deputy parted leaving Ira and Dain suppressing smiles. It was working as well as they hoped. Now they waited to see if Adam came into town to get the money. They guessed that Helen would tell him, and he would get the money to shut them up so her reputation wouldn't be tarnished and his son wouldn't carry a stigma. They knew a lot more about the world than Martha Mae did. Her naïve hope that this would somehow turn Adam against his wife was a silly notion. If Adam got the money, Martha Mae wouldn't be a problem much longer.

A short time after Roy and Clem walked off in opposite directions, Ira and Dain saw Adam ride up to the bank. He looked dark and angry. He carried a small satchel and stalked into the bank leaving about a half hour later with a satchel that was obviously stuffed. He rode out of town as stiffly as he had ridden in. The two men got up and sauntered as casually as they could to Martha Mae's house. They planned on having a nice dinner and cleaning up loose ends before getting a nice nap and then taking a ride.

At Adam's home, Ben was there when he got home. They were coordinating their plans and hoped that they had every possibility covered.

"Adam, the one possibility that worries me most is if they plan to ambush you here. This meeting point twenty miles south of here could be a ruse to get everyone so far away that you don't have any help here if that happens."

"That's why you're here. You, Franklin, and Tony are my backup here. Tomorrow morning, Franklin will be out early with you to keep watch. If there's any sign of anyone watching the house, you know what to do. Helen knows how to shoot. She's been practicing ever since they tried to break into the house here. Tony will have a rifle and be ready too to defend if necessary. Amanda will keep Bennett safe and away from danger. Once I leave here, you can follow at a distance to make sure that no one is on my trail."

"Hoss and Joe will have set up men along the way to make sure there's no way for them to ambush you once you leave the Ponderosa."

"Roy and Clem will be waiting for you to meet up with them to follow at a discreet distance. There's a risk to me, but it's a very small one. Franklin and Tony will stay behind here to make sure there's no one who's going to try to use this opportunity to go through with the kidnapping that they failed to accomplish the last time."

"It seems that everything is covered. It makes me nervous though seeing you riding out there with all that money."

With a smirk, Adam opened the satchel to show his father that it was stuffed with worthless paper. "I've got every piece of trash the bank could find including several issues of the Enterprise ripped up into small pieces. There's no money. I never had any intention of giving them any money. They only know I went into the bank, spent a lot of time there, went into the bank vault, and left there with a stuffed satchel."

"How would they know you went into the bank vault?"

"The bank president is the only one who knows the true story. In case they checked with any bank employee, we played it out as if I actually took that money, but in fact, it's in the president's safe in his office. I have a receipt that says that's so."

"Now, we can have dinner. It's already late, and I want all of us to try to get a decent night's sleep tonight. We can eat, and then we can retire for the night. If anyone is watching, they won't see anything unusual."

There was nothing unusual except for an extra man in the stable keeping watch during the night. Franklin and Tony had their dinner in the kitchen with Amanda as usual. Ben's horse was in the stable and with the shutters closed, no one would know he was there. Adam and Helen went up to bed early as did Ben. He read while they found more intimate activities to relieve the stress of the situation. Before dawn, all of them were up and dressed. Amanda had coffee and breakfast ready but neither Adam nor Ben had any appetite. Helen had Amanda wrap up some food for each of them. While it was still dark, Ben left to ride up the hill behind Adam's house to keep watch with Franklin. As soon as it was dawn, Adam took the satchel and rode out. He had about three hours to reach the rendezvous point. He didn't think it would be a problem. With no sign of anyone following, Ben rode after him and eventually met Roy and a posse who had some grim news.

"Ben, I hate to tell you this, but Martha Mae's house burned down last night."

"Roy, what about her and her children?"

"Her boy smelled something funny and got up. He woke his sister when he found lamp oil in the hallway. The two of 'em found their ma in her bed. They couldn't wake her. She was dead already. Then there was an explosion of some kind in the kitchen. Them two had to jump out her bedroom window. They're all right, but they lost everything. That old ramshackle house burned down so fast it wasn't even a threat to starting the neighbor's houses on fire. The fire company got the sparks out in the neighborhood real fast. There's some scorching of the neighbors' houses but that's it."

"Was it murder?"

"Had to be from what those kids could tell me. I got wanted posters being made for Ira and Dain. We see 'em today, they're wanted on suspicion of murder."

No one saw Ira and Dain that day. They had suspected that Adam might take some precautions. They had no idea how thorough those precautions might be. By the time they realized the forces arrayed against them, they headed for cover and knew that they better not make any attempt on him because there were too many out to get them. There were those they had seen which made them worry about the ones they had not seen. Adam rode to the rendezvous point and waited for hours. Nothing happened. It was clear that the blackmailers had been spooked. He rode home thinking that the crisis was over. His brothers and his father were happy to have helped and thought the same. All thought that they had averted trouble.

Chapter 7

Wanted posters on Ira and Dain were circulated all through the Sierras from California to Oregon including all of Nevada of course. Eventually those posters got to Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and further, but there was no word on either man. It was as if they had disappeared. It was assumed that had taken whatever items of value that Martha Mae had, but that would not have been much. They probably also provisioned themselves from her kitchen, but again that would not have been much. Sheriff Coffee expected that they had no more than a few weeks of supplies at best. Adam and his family kept a watch out but there was no hint of trouble. They had no idea what had become of the two men nor did they have any idea if the two men were still a threat. After a month and nothing happening, it was inevitable that they would let down their guard. It was exactly what Ira and Dain had expected and for what they had waited. Lean and hungry having subsisted on a diet of small game for weeks, they knew that all they had left was revenge. They had made one excursion into a small town in southern Nevada. Luckily with their full beards after weeks in the wilderness, no one had recognized them, but they saw the freshly printed wanted posters tacked up outside the sheriff's office. Neither of them was ready to live the outlaw's life. They expected they would have to flee the country and blamed Adam for that too. Their plan was to exact their revenge and then head south to escape justice. It was all that they thought they had left, and desperate men were willing to do just about anything including eating whatever they could scrounge up in the desert until the time was right to move forward with their plans. They saw their opportunity one morning.

"There he goes with no extra protection. Just him, her, and the brat."

"Ira, we could take 'em right now."

"No, better we take 'em on the way back. It's Saturday. They're likely to be getting supplies. We can use supplies. No one's likely to even know when exactly they're expected back. We could be miles away before anyone even knows they're missing."

"We're takin' 'em with us? I thought we'd just kill him and be on our way. That's what we talked about."

"Dain, that was before I saw him smiling and happy and all. I want to make him suffer some. I want him to know why he's dying. I want him to know we're taking his woman with us and she's gonna be ours before we're done."

"What if she's like Martha? Nothing I did got her to cooperate, and once we kill her husband, this one ain't likely to cooperate either."

"Yah, but we'll have her kid. She'll know we'll kill him too ifn she don't keep us happy. I'll explain it all to Cartwright before I kill him. I got a little thing to settle with her too for dumping those damn diapers on me. I couldn't get that smell off me for days. She's gonna regret doing that to me."

"You're lucky she didn't shoot you. She shot three times."

"Goes to show she don't know what she's doing with a gun. She didn't come anywhere near us with any of those shots."

In the wagon down on the road, Adam and Helen had no idea what dire predictions Ira and Dain were making about their future. They were concentrating instead on Bennett who was saying his first words or at least it sounded like words as he babbled and cooed in Helen's arms as she sat next to Adam. He had a difficult time concentrating on the road and the team as he watched and listened to his son in his wife's arms. A year earlier, he couldn't have imagined such happiness. His father was adjusting to the changes on the ranch, and one more married hand with children had decided to move into a house near Adam so they were going to build another small house. Two more married hands who did not have children also wanted to have that benefit so Adam and Hoss had suggested a bunkhouse of separate quarters instead of separate homes for the couples. Hop Sing had suggested that most of the chickens and the pigs could be moved then so that the women could take over those. Helen proposed opening a dairy that Ben scoffed at but Adam endorsed so that was on the drawing board as well. When Adam and Helen weren't enjoying their son, they were talking about their plans and their future. Everything seemed so bright.

"The older he gets, the more he looks like you." Helen thought that having a son who looked as handsome as her husband was a very good thing. "He's going to be attracting girls just like you did."

"I didn't attract that many girls when I was young."

"That was only because your father was dragging you across the country. If you had been settled in one place, there would have been a lot of attention directed your way. Bennett has those dimples and those same beautiful lips."

"Men do not appreciate women saying their lips are beautiful."

"How about if I ask if you would kiss me with those beautiful lips?"

"Well, then, that is an entirely different matter, isn't it." Adam pulled the team to a halt wrapping his arms around his wife and kissing her deeply for a minute until Bennett began fussing at the lack of attention. "Ah, my competition objects." Adam leaned down then and kissed Bennett on the cheek and then tickled him until he giggled. He took up the reins again and snapped them to get the team moving again. "Tonight, I promise we'll continue that discussion after Bennett is asleep."

"Yes, and you always keep your promises."

"Yes, I do especially when it will be so much fun keeping that one." Adam gave her his most lecherous grin and all she could do was shake her head at him and grin back. They had a very satisfying intimate life together. Since Bennett was born, Adam had been very attentive and sensitive to her needs, but as she had recovered from the birth, they had gotten much more comfortable with a very energetic love life. She had never expected a man to get such pleasure from giving pleasure to a woman. He got great physical satisfaction from making love too, but she knew he was proud of being able to bring her to the heights of passion as well. She could no longer imagine a life without Adam in it. He had told her that he felt the same. Anyone who saw them together knew how much they loved each other and how much they loved their son. Life was very good for the Cartwrights. At least it was until they were driving home that afternoon.

Only a half hour out of Virginia City, Adam and Helen were accosted by Ira and Dain Gillie who rode up on the wagon with guns drawn and ordered them to stop. They told Adam to raise his arms and told Helen to hand over Adam's pistol. She did when Adam whispered to her to cooperate because they had no choice.

"Let my wife and son go. I'm the one you want."

"No, they're the ones who're gonna make you behave. Besides, I owe her for dumping them damn diapers on me. She ought not a done that."

"You were trying to break into my house. You ought not to have done that." Helen was incensed, but Adam put a hand down to try to get her not to antagonize them further. When he did, they heard both weapons click.

"You better put them hands back up in the air or you're gonna die right here and so will they."

Quickly Adam raised his hands again not wanting to do anything that could bring harm to Helen or Bennett. "Now what?"

"You get out, and don't try anything. Dain is gonna keep his pistol aimed at her. You try anything, he shoots her. You clear on that?"

"I'm clear." Adam climbed down very deliberately not wanting to do anything that might upset the two men. Ira told him to walk to the back of the wagon. There he tossed him a rope and told him to tie it to the back of the wagon. He did so, and then he told him to tie the other end around his wrists.

"Tie it real tight now. You tie it loose, and I might have to shoot you if it comes off. You understand that?"

"I understand." Adam tied his wrists as he got a sinking feeling about what was coming next. He was correct.

Ira' s next instructions to Helen were to put Bennett down and to drive the wagon. She did but slowly. Ira told her to speed up.

"But Adam can't keep up to horses going any faster."

"He'll have to or get dragged. That's his problem. Your problem is that if you don't drive faster, I'll use this whip to make these horses take off and then maybe none of you will survive today." Ira pulled a whip from around his saddle pommel and twirled it in the air snapping it once to demonstrate how it could be used. "Found this in Martha's stable before we left. Figured it might come in handy along the way. Now git them horses moving."

Luckily for Adam, much of the time, they were on an upgrade and the horse couldn't pull the wagon very fast. There were times though when they went fast enough that he was jerked off his feet and dragged. By the end of three hours as it got darker and they needed to make camp, Adam's clothing was ripped, his hands were swollen, and he had some bad abrasions. Ira took the rope from the wagon and walked to a tree. Adam expected to be tied to the tree and dropped down on the ground, but Ira jerked the rope.

"Oh, no, you don't. You come here."

Ira threw the rope over a branch forcing Adam to stand with his arms pulled up above his head. Ira had a problem then in that the rope didn't reach anywhere to tie it off. He pulled it down then and tied it to the other end of the rope around Adam's wrists. The only good news for Adam was that his arms weren't pulled up tight that way. He had some leeway to move his arms and hopefully his hands if he could get his fingers working again. From the wagon, Helen watched and worried not sure what would happen next. Ira ordered her to get out of the wagon with Bennett and to sit next to it. By then, Bennett had been crying for quite some time because he was hungry, needed a diaper change, and needed attention.

"Shut that brat up."

"Need to feed him and change him. His things are in the wagon."

"Well get 'em and get him to shut up."

Rummaging in the wagon, Helen got out the bag of supplies for Bennett and her purse in which she had the small pistol with which she had been practicing for a month. She was quite good at short range, but she wasn't sure how good she would be against two men. She knew she would have to pick the right moment, and she had to make sure Bennett was safe too. She changed Bennett, and then unbuttoned her dress and covered herself with a small blanket as Bennett nursed. Ira walked over and jerked the blanket away leering at her breast as the baby nursed.

"Come on over here, Dain. We already get to see more than Martha ever let us see."

Rather than be embarrassed, Helen was furious, but there was nothing she could do. While she was the center of attention, an equally furious Adam was working his fingers trying to see if he could undo the knot holding the rope to the tree branch. He felt it loosen a tiny bit. He was discouraged though because he guessed it might take him hours to loosen it enough to get free of the tree and then he still had to work out the other knot that bound his wrists. He hoped that if they did no more, he could be free by morning.

Once Bennett was fed, Ira and Dain let Helen button up her dress because they wanted her to fix dinner for them using the supplies from the wagon. She did. By the time that was completed, it was time to sleep. She asked if they would let Adam sleep. They laughed and said he wouldn't be needing sleep where he was going. Helen was told that if she did anything to try to help Adam, they would bash Bennett's head in. She was told to take her things and his and get under the wagon and stay there. Ira and Dain decided they would take turns watching over Adam and Helen during the night. Helen asked if she could at least take a cup of water to Adam and that got a resounding no as well. It was then that she realized that they definitely meant to kill Adam. She began to plan what she could do. She got the pistol out of her purse and made sure it was fully loaded. She worked very carefully in the darkness so that they would hear nothing. Then she put the pistol inside her dress so that they would not find it. She kept Bennett close to her as she did it wondering how she could keep him safe while she used that pistol to save Adam.

On the Ponderosa, Adam and Helen had been missed by late afternoon. Tony rode to the main house alerting the family. Hoss and Joe rode out with Tony and sent him back when they found tracks indicating that Adam and his family had been abducted.

"Ifn they had Adam ride, I never woulda been able to tell, but it ain't normal to have a man running after a wagon and then being dragged. It's gotta be them Gillies. Tony, you go back and tell my Pa. He'll know what to do. Joe, will you go to town and get Roy. He oughta be in on this too. I'll track this as far as I can go until it gets dark. I'll leave a clear trail so you can follow me in the morning. Ride hard. From the looks of this, they mean to do some harm to Adam and right quick."

Chapter 8

As Hoss tracked, he left blaze marks that anyone could see as they rode. The trail went from the main road to a lesser road to a rough trail that was overgrown and hardly used by anyone. But with the blaze marks, help wouldn't have to even slow down as they followed the next morning. Hoss went as far as he could until he couldn't see even the faintest of wagon tracks. He didn't light a campfire. He had not supplies with him anyway. Instead, he watched up ahead for the any sign of a camp. He guessed that Ira and Dain wouldn't be smart enough to shield a campfire if they had one and that they probably didn't go very far off the trail. It took some time but eventually he saw it although it was many miles away. He started walking in that direction and left blaze marks as he went. It was a gut feeling but he knew it had to be their camp because there couldn't be many travelers on a trail like the one he was on. As long as he could see the glow of that campfire, he could get close to that camp and perhaps even be there by morning if they kept the fire burning. He had to be careful and not get hurt nor make any sound. It was very slow going and occasionally he had to backtrack when he lost sight of the campfire because of the trees and the terrain, but it was always there. In the early hours of the morning, Hoss had to stop because the campfire went out and he had not beacon to follow. He knew he had to wait for the first light of predawn before he could advance any further. He sat leaned against Chubb for warmth and waited.

In the camp, Adam realized that both Ira and Dain had fallen asleep. He worked as hard as he could on the knot holding the rope to the tree but with his wrists bound and over his head, his fingers were not cooperating. He made little progress and could only hope that by morning at least he would have that one knot loose. He didn't know what he would do but he hoped that if Helen was awake that she would take Bennett and run. He had heard Bennett cry a little about an hour earlier and assumed that she had nursed him. He would be sleeping soundly making this a good time for her to escape. She couldn't get to him without going right by Dain and Ira and he assumed she knew that was a mistake. However, he should have known she would try. She did, and Ira awakened and caught her. He threw her back against the wagon which awakened Dain.

"Damn you, what were you gonna do?"

"He's my husband. I had to see how he was doing."

"You was gonna let him loose. Get back there with your brat. I oughta do what I said I was gonna do. Dain, get that fire started. She's awake. She can fix some breakfast for us. We probably need to get things done early this morning. I been thinking. They might be on our trail by now. We gotta take care of him and get going this morning."

"We still gonna do things with her in front of him like you said?"

"I don't know. We may not have time for that. Let's have breakfast, and we can talk about that. Get that fire started like I said, and woman you get some breakfast for us."

Reluctantly Helen prepared breakfast for the two men wondering again how she could possibly get the drop on both of them. Ira saw her eyeing the frying pan with hot bacon grease in it. It was his pan but their bacon.

"Woman, don't even think on doing what you're thinking of doing. It's gonna be bad enough for you. You don't want to make it worse for your brat."

Every time they threatened Bennett, Helen got a cold feeling inside and it hurt her to even think of what they might do. She dropped all thought of using the bacon grease as a weapon and dumped on the coals making the fire flare and burn off the grease in the pan as well.

"Now sit there with your brat. You might come out of this in one piece yet."

Ira grabbed the whip from his saddle and walked toward Adam. Dain got a big grin and followed expecting his brother to give Adam a good whipping. Ira sailed the whip through the air a few times snapping it loudly. Helen realized that they didn't think she was a threat at all. She pulled the pistol from her dress and took a deep breath knowing that in the next few minutes, her life as well as Adam's and Bennett's hung in the balance. As Ira moved toward Adam, it seemed the snap of the whip infuriated Adam. He had finally loosened the knot holding the rope to the tree and was holding the rope in his hands. He let it go and lunged toward Ira shocking him. Adam head butted him knocking him to the ground stunned. Dain moved to draw his pistol but was knocked to the ground by Adam who even with his bound hands was able to pound him senseless with the fury he had. Unfortunately, Ira regained his senses and got to his feet drawing his pistol and slammed it into Adam's back knocking him away from Dain who lay bloodied on the ground.

"You bastard, I'm gonna shoot you in the belly and watch you bleed out until you die."

Ira aimed his pistol at Adam's belly. Adam waited for the explosion from the barrel and the excruciating pain that would follow. The sound was less than he expected though and there was a blossom of red on Ira's chest. He dropped his pistol and put both hands to the wound as blood began to spurt from the ruptured aorta. He was nearly dead before his body hit the ground. Dain scrambled to his brother's side in shock, but then picked up the pistol and fired at Helen who stood in shock at what she had done. She had to duck down to avoid being shot. Dain turned to Adam.

"Now I'm gonna do what Ira said. Then I'm gonna do it to that witch you married and that brat you've got."

Again Adam expected to be shot but Dain's head nearly exploded with the rifle shot that hit him. He flopped over his brother's body. Adam lay still for only a second and then stood and ran for Helen. He found her crouched and sobbing by the wagon. He knelt by her and she looked up wide-eyed in amazement.

"You're alive. I thought I failed."

"You did fine. Help came just in time."

A minute later, Hoss rode into camp. He helped Adam get the ropes from around his wrists and let him sit with Helen who was soothing Bennett. As Hoss walked to the two bodies, Adam wrapped an arm around Helen and tried to talk. Nothing came out as he began to cry until wracking sobs shook him. Helen pulled his head to her shoulder and held him. He had been through so much in the previous two years and had held so much in. He couldn't do it any more. It came pouring out. Bennett began fussing. Hoss walked back and took Bennett and walked with him away from the camp into the trees and the quiet peace of nature letting Adam have time with his wife.

When Ben and Roy got there with a posse an hour later, Adam was pale and his eyes were red. Helen looked about the same. The two bodies were rolled up in blankets. Hoss was still carrying Bennett who seemed to be enjoying seeing the world from that high and hearing his uncle's laugh. Ben dismounted and went to Adam and Helen.

"What happened here?"

Hoss answered though. "Adam done took on two armed men even though his hands was tied. Helen shot one of 'em when he was a gonna shoot Adam. I had to shoot the other one before she got to shoot him too. They're wrapped up in them blankets. It's Ira and Dain Gillie. You got wanted posters on 'em. Now it's over."

Knowing there was probably a lot more to the story but that the legal necessities were covered for Roy, Ben put a hand on Adam's shoulder. "We should get you and your family home then. It looks like that's what you need."

Adam said then the only words he said to his father until he reached his home. "Yes, thank you." After checking the harness and watering the horses, Adam helped Helen back into the wagon and Hoss handed Bennett back to her. The family was going to need some time together, but Hoss was confident that they would be fine. He had seen how Adam and Helen had held each other and supported each other after the trauma once they were sure that Bennett was safe in Hoss' arms. He was fairly certain too that the tears Adam shed were not about this incident but about so much that had happened. From a mile away, he had seen Adam take on Ira and Dain even though his hands were tied. He couldn't tell what had happened to precipitate that event but knew that Adam had to have been furious to try something like that. He knew for a long time that there had been a lot of anger inside his older brother and at some point it had to come out. He was glad it was Ira and Dain who got the brunt of it and that he and Helen had been there to back him up. At least he had been close enough. He had pulled his rifle when he realized he couldn't get to the camp in time to intervene in the fight. He had taken a spot where he had a clear shot at the two ruffians and waited to see if he needed to intervene. When Dain aimed his gun at Adam, he knew he had to stop him and did. He had been going to shoot Ira but Helen had taken care of that first allowing him to set his sights on Dain. He felt bad about having to kill the man, and knew that Helen was probably suffering remorse too over taking a life, but she would understand as he did that it was worth it considering who had been saved by the action.

Once Adam and Helen were home, Ben took charge of getting everything put away and told Helen to get Adam to bed. Normally, they might have taken offense at that but under the circumstances, they thanked him and went upstairs to their bedroom. Helen washed and bandaged Adam's wrists and bathed his legs and arms where the abrasions were festering slightly. She applied salve to them to ease the discomfort. As Adam reclined on the bed, she slipped out of her dress and did a quick sponge bath too. She was going to put on a robe when Adam called to her. He wanted to make love to her.

"Now? After all this?"

"Yes, especially now, after all this. I love you and I need you."

Expecting the lovemaking to be gentle and soothing, Helen was surprised at the deep passion of the experience. The events had unleashed emotions in both of them that needed release and got it. Afterwards, they slept soundly until she awoke realizing that she was very much overdue nursing Bennett. She slipped from the bed and dressed quickly. When she bent down to kiss Adam's cheek, he murmured that she should hurry back.

"It's the afternoon, love. I won't be back until tonight. If you wake, I'll have Amanda keep your dinner ready. Otherwise, I'll be back here after I get Bennett to bed this evening."

Downstairs, Helen found that Amanda had fed Bennett some rice cereal to placate him earlier, but that he was ready to nurse. Ben and the others had departed after making sure that everything was put away and secured. Adam came downstairs about an hour later. When he did, Bennett threw his arms wide and smiled broadly waiting for his father to pick him up. Helen saw Adam's eyes glistening when he did. She couldn't help a tear slipping from her eyes too. No matter what they endured, their love for each other only got stronger.

The next morning, after breakfast, Adam answered the door to find Sheriff Roy Coffee there.

"Good morning, Adam. I trust you're feeling a bit better this morning. I hate to bother you, but I wrote out what Hoss told me yesterday and I only need you and Helen to sign it to make it official and close this case. Oh, and I got a little letter for ya from Martha's little girl. She and her brother are going off to California to live with Martha's sister and her husband. Seems they got a nice little truck farm outside of San Francisco. Took us a while to find 'em. They got some other children and are happy to have two more. They're coming in by train, and then they're taking the children back with them. The news was all over town about what happened to you and what you done to Ira and Dain. I went to talk to the two children and tell them that Ira and Dain would never be a threat to them again." Roy handed the letter to Adam who read the note and handed it to Helen. She read it and smiled.

"My Mama made some mistakes. She took in those bad men and they kilt her. I loved my Mama and she loved me and my brother. It hurt us so bad to be alone and not have anyone. I thought God had turned away from us. Father Jonathan said that we all have guardian angels though and we should wait for the angels to help us and guide us. He said we only had to pay attention and we would see that angels are here. Sheriff Roy helped us by finding my Aunt Margaret Mary. My Aunt Margaret Mary is helping us by giving us a home. And you and your wife helped us by getting rid of those bad men so they'll never come after us. I know my Mama can rest easy now knowing we got angels taking care of us. I'll never forget what you done for us. I'll pray to God and thank him too for having you here to help out people like us who needed it. I don't rightly know if you're angels or if the angels are telling you to help us, but either way, I'm real grateful. I got to tell you that I asked Sheriff Coffee about how to say some of these words and how to spell some of them. If they aren't right, you'll have to excuse him. He's not a schoolteacher, you know. Your friend forever, Janie Mae."

"Roy, if there's anything we can do to help those kids, let us know please? I'd like to know what happens to them."

"Adam, I'd like to know too. I'll ask Janie to write and let us know how they're doing."

Once Roy had his paperwork signed, he headed back to town to close the case. Adam and Helen got to relax and enjoy some time together only briefly before Ben arrived. He was anxious to see that his son as well as his daughter-in-law and grandson were in good condition after their ordeal. He was pleased to see them all looking refreshed and smiling. They enjoyed coffee and some cinnamon rolls that Amanda had baked. Then Helen began talking about the dairy and Ben rolled his eyes making Adam smile. Things were definitely back to normal.

Within a year, Ben was smiling too. Helen's dairy investment turned out to be a wise one. She provided all the needs of the Ponderosa quite easily, and the extra butter and cheese was sold to the stores and restaurants in Virginia City. Her truck gardening and poultry operations also brought in a steady flow of cash. None of those were huge amounts of money, but they were good returns on investment and a reliable cash flow. When Helen suggested that they consider marketing their own smoked beef and ham, Ben sat up and asked how, what, where, and when. Adam grinned. He had started a design and construction business using Ponderosa timber and lumber, and spent a few days a week working in town. Again it was not a huge moneymaker, but it was a reliable source of income and added to the overall profitability of the Ponderosa. Ben's empire and legacy were growing, and he was embracing the changes that were making that possible. All he hoped was that Hoss and Joe would marry and provide some additional grandchildren to inherit this bounty. Ah, but that's another story.


End file.
